290 VENOMS 
wise protrude their venomous spines when conscious of danger. The 
poison-apparatus of these fishes is therefore of an eminently defen- 
sive character. 
According to Bottard, the spawning season increases the activity 
of the poison-glands and at the same time the toxicity of the secreted 
product. Several species, such as those of the genus Cottus and the 
perch, possess no apparent secreting cells except at this period. 
Certain toxicophorous or poisonous fishes, such as the species of 
Tetrodon, are particularly noxious at the time when their genital 
glands are at their maximum activity. 
A.—TELEOSTEI.—ACANTHOPTERYGII 
1.—Triglide. 
The fishes of this family are all repulsively ugly. They have an 
elongate and but shghtly compressed body, covered with ctenoid 
scales, and a large head in which the suborbital bones, which are 
broad, unite with the præopercular so as to form an osseous plate 
in the malar region. The pectoral fins are large, and provided 
with a few detached rays, which perform the function of tactile 
organs ; the ventral fins are situate on the breast. These fishes are 
extremely voracious. 
The most interesting type is the Synanceva termed by the Creoles 
of Réunion Crapaud de mer, and by those of Mauritius Laffe. In 
Java it is called Zkan-Satan (Devil-fish), and in Tahiti Nohu. It is 
distributed throughout almost all the warmer regions of the Indian 
and Pacific Oceans, and is found in Cochin-China and New Caledonia. 
It is never taken in the open sea, but only among the fringing 
reefs, where it lives constantly concealed in holes or buried in the 
sand. It does not come out except to make a sudden dart at prey 
passing within its reach. When irritated it does not eject venom ; 
for the latter to be expelled one has either to press hard upon the 
poison-sacs, after pushing back with the fingers the membranes 
covering the dorsal defensive armature, or the naked foot must be 
